URL Shortener

URL Shorteners to Face the Twitter Character Shortage

The micromessages on Twitter will have to get even more succinct. As of today, Feb. 20, Twitter is allowing two fewer characters when sharing a link, as displayed below.

When a full URL address is pasted into the tweet composer, Twitter's built-in link shortener shrinks the web address and adds an ellipsis (...) at the end. These abbreviated links are getting longer: HTTP addresses are going from 20 to 22 characters and HTTPS (secured sites) are moving from 21 to 23 characters, leaving you with 118 or 117 letters and punctuation, respectively.

Tweets without links are sticking to the 140 character limit, so don't panic just yet! But if you are sharing a website or picture on the Twitterz, there are great URL shortening alternatives you can use.

Google URL Shortener shortens your links with a "goo.gl" abbreviation, and you can track when you created the link and how many clicks it's received since.

Tiny URL makes long URLs, well, tiny, and you can create a custom alias, too. Use the TinyURL browser toolbar for quick access.

Is.gd is an "ethical" ad-free, carbon-neutral URL shortener that will compress that address.

App.X.Co is a service provided by hosting site Go Daddy and offers link customization, statistics, and sharing for free.